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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25663828">i hit the ground running each night</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/RhymeReason/pseuds/RhymeReason'>RhymeReason</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Charlotte Holmes Series - Brittany Cavallaro</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon Compliant, F/M, Post-A Question Of Holmes, Reunion, Small Fandom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 03:33:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,458</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25663828</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/RhymeReason/pseuds/RhymeReason</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A Reunion</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Charlotte Holmes/Jamie Watson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>i hit the ground running each night</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>LISTEN i know that no one is in this fandom and no one really cares about it but for the three people in this fandom, you're welcome</p><p>also, the title is from a taylor swift song, dont judge</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>When Holmes had first left, Jamie missed her like a bad cold. It left him heavy limbed and aching everywhere. It hurt, like she was tugging all of the blood in his body along with her across the globe. He supposed that she was, considering she was taking his heart with her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>That was too cliched, even for him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It got easier every day though, in a way that made Jamie feel almost sicker. While he still missed her, it got easier to go about his life. He started school, had dinner with his parents, lunch with Leander and Steven, and wrote. He wrote more than he ever had before. So much so that he had a box in his closet just dedicated to his notebooks. He would never admit it but Holmes was in every one of those notebooks in some way or another. Especially the month-long stint he had writing only lyric poetry. She was in there a lot.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But that is to say, even two years after she left, Jamie still missed her. He could function without her, sure, but nothing compared to her by his side.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was a darker day, all things considered. He was sitting in a little cafe down the street from his University, getting lunch with some friends and completely zoning out. That happened sometimes. He would just get so deep in his own head, thinking about Charlotte, wondering if she was okay. If she was safe. If she missed him the way he missed her. He had the feeling that she did. She usually said as much in her letters but it surprised him every single time. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>His therapist always told him that if you tried hard enough, you could know everything in the world except what another person was thinking. Jamie knew exactly how true that was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span> It wasn’t until Murphy snapped their fingers in his face that he realized that his friends were all just looking at him. Kayleigh was doing that thing where she raised her eyebrows at him disapprovingly, Carly was snickering and Murphy was shaking their head at him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dude, did you hear any of that?” They asked. “Like, at all?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll be honest,” Jamie said. “No, not at all.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Murphy rolled their eyes. “Yeah that's what I thought you would say,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s up today, Jamie?” Carly asked. “You’re more out of it than usual.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He shrugged helplessly. “I’m just missing my girlfriend I guess.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your girlfriend.” Kayleigh shook her head. Jamie braced himself for the usual argument. “C’mon, Jamie. It’s been two years and none of us, your best friends, have met this mysterious girlfriend of yours? I have a hard time believing that she’s real.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh let him have his made up girlfriend if he wants to.” Murphy interrupted, cutting the argument short with a wave of their hand. “None of our buisness if he wants to get absolutely no sex at all while he’s here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay well first off, let’s not talk about my sex life, thank you. And also, I’m telling you she’s real, Theo knows her!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That was one of the many unexpected things that Jamie had encountered since Holmes had left. After everything that had happened at Oxford that summer,Theo had ended up transferring to King's college for his final two years of Uni and, as fate would have them, put him in the same dorm as Jamie. It was awkward at first but they eventually became really close. Jamie would almost consider him one of his best friends, along with the three sitting at the cafe with him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I love Theo but he is full of shit.” Kayleigh said. “The guy’s an actor! How do we know that this isn’t some long haul trick the two of them are playing on us?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carly, Murphy and Jamie all rolled their eyes. “You say that everytime and every time it gets more and more unbelievable.” Carly scoffed. “Just let Jamie have his long distance girlfriend. I think it’s kind of cute.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you, Carly.” Jamie said. “Good to know that someone is on my side.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, I’m on your side!” Murphy attempted to defend themself. “I’m just also hedging my bets on her being made up.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, thank you for that.” Jamie said dryly. “Much appreciated.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re welcome!” They responded brightly, stealing the remnants of Jamie’s danish off his plate. He had learned pretty early on in his friendship with Murphy that any leftover food left around would end up being eaten by them. He accounted for it now and didn’t bat an eye at the gesture.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We should head out.” Murphy said, standing up and wiping their hands off. “It’s two twenty five.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, shit, really?” Jamie looked at his watch. “Shit, Murph, we have class in five minutes!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No we don’t, it got cancelled today, remember?” Murphy spread their arms out wide. “We’re free for the weekend, buddy boy! Rejoice!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then why are we in such a hurry?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because we have something planned and if you ask me any more questions, I will not hesitate to dropkick you, James Watson Jr.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, okay!” Jamie held his hands up in surrender but grinned. “Where are we heading then?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Back to our apartment.” Carly said, referring to the apartment that Jamie shared with her, Kayleigh and Theo. Murphy didn’t live there, instead living with their boyfriend a few blocks over, but was still around enough that they all just referred to it as all of theirs. It was as close to perfect as five college students living all together could be.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They began the walk back to the apartment and Jamie couldn’t stop his mind from wandering again. He hoped that wherever Holmes was, she was having fun. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kayleigh!” Murphy whined next to him like a child as they rounded the block that their apartment was on. “Jamie’s zoning out again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Without looking at him, Kayleigh reached over and lightly smacked him upside the head. “You stop that, we’re home.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ow!” Jamie rubbed the back of his head. It didn’t actually hurt, but it was the principle of the thing. “What was I doing?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thinking too hard. Now c’mon, we have a surprise for you.” Kayleigh led the way up to their third floor apartment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I really don’t trust that sentence when it comes out of your mouth.” Jamie said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kayleigh rolled her eyes. “Carly, cover his eyes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gotcha!” Carly, despite being nearly a full foot shorter than Jamie, slapped her hands over his eyes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I trust this even less”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Too bad!” Jamie heard Murphy chortle behind him. “Get your head out of your ass and just let us do something nice for you without complaining for once, will you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That sentence structure was atrocious.” Jamie said as Carly and Murphy led him into the apartment. He tripped over the rug in the living room and heard Theo snort. So Theo was home. He knew that Murphy was still behind him, Carly was obviously holding her hands over his eyes and he would hear Kayleigh’s tell tale sigh as she sat in the armchair in the far corner of the room. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was someone else in the room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He could hear it when they started breathing again, a harsh breath let out suddenly, as if they had begun holding it in when he entered. There was a smallest of scrapes, the sound of someone taking a partially aborted step towards him before thinking better of it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He froze in his tracks, Carly and Murphy running into his back as he wrenched his head out of Carly’s grasp. He reached for his backpack, attempting to grab at the pocket knife in the front pocket when his eyes finally adjusted to the sight in front of him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jamie froze again, not trusting himself to move.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If Jamie believed more in God, he would think that he was seeing a vision. Not of an angel or a devil but something that part of him thought he would never see again. Because standing in front of him was Charlotte Holmes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her hair was longer than it was before and she had bangs that were so cute that Jamie’s heart skipped a small beat. She had filled out slightly, not looking as stretched and gaunt as she had previously. She looked healthier and calmer. There wasn’t as harsh of a look in her eyes but instead she looked almost….nervous? He knew that he should say something, anything, but all he could do was just look at her. And he knew that she was just looking at him too.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eventually he made an involuntarily choked out sound, somewhere between a laugh and a gasp. A grin stretched across his face, a real one. He had obviously smiled in the years between now and the last time he had seen Holmes, but not like this. Only she could make him smile like this. He found his voice, at a whisper. “Holmes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She smiled back at him, a small one but a genuine one. “Hello Watson.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He couldn’t stop himself then. He took off, scooping her up into his arms and twirling her around, ignoring the way that his friends were jeering and Holmes was shrieking. He just held her, trying desperately to catalogue the way she felt in his arms.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She reached up and ran her fingers through his hair as he set her down. He could feel her smile against his shoulder. “You’ve gotten taller.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You got bangs.” He pulled back and just looked at her. “Holmes, what, what are you doing here?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I told you.” She said gently. “I told you I would come back. Thank you for waiting for me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I always will.” He pressed his forehead against hers and breathed in deeply. “I missed you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I missed you too.” She kissed him, soft and sweet and it felt like coming home.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh shit wait, is this her?” Kayleigh said, effectively ruining the moment. Jamie pulled back quickly, having completely forgotten that there were other people in the room. “Theo, you didn’t tell us it was his girlfriend!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What did you expect?” Theo said. He was smiling too and gave Jamie a wink. “I told you it was someone really important.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah but I thought it was like his sister or someone!” Kayleigh practically shouted. “Not his girlfriend who I was convinced didn’t exist like ten minutes ago!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why did you think I didn’t exist?” Holmes asked and Jamie snorted. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well uh,” Kayleigh looked slightly cowed by Holmes. Jamie knew the feeling well but was unwilling to help his friend. She had dug her own grave. “He just always talked about you but none of us had ever met you before- except Theo” She added at Theo’s glare. “So I honestly kinda just assumed that Jamie had made you up. Besides, a Holmes dating a Watson? That sounds like something out of the tabloids.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh the tabloids would go absolutely feral if they knew.” Holmes conceded. “But as for me being real, I can assure you that I am.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well duh.” Kayleigh waved her hand, trying desperately to ignore the embarrassed flush to her face. “I can tell that now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m glad you can.” Holmes turned back to Jamie and nudged him slightly with her elbow. “Watson, will you introduce me to your friends?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Happily.” He grinned. “You know Theo, of course. He’s the one who let you in I’m guessing?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, Leander mentioned that you two had ended up at flatmates when I saw him and Steven and so I took it upon myself to get in contact with him to organize this little surprise. You liked it, I presume?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I loved it.” He couldn’t help himself and leaned forward to kiss her again. He broke it with a grin and straightened up again. “The one over in the corner who is feeling like an absolute idiot is Kayleigh. She’s a philosophy student and loves conspiracy theories, which would be why I think she was so attached to the idea of you being fake.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Holmes nodded. “Respectable, if a little far fetched I suppose.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There's Carly,” Jamie pointed and Carly gave a little wave. “She’s Kayleigh’s twin and a theater student with Theo, which is how we met.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s great to meet you!” Carly said. “You are way too pretty for Jamie!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Holmes snorted as Jamie looked offended. “I’m aware.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay rude. We’re moving on to Murphy.” He nodded and looked over to Murphy, who was giving him a shiteating grin. “Murph is studying creative writing with me. We have most of our classes together. They were the only one who believed that you were real, besides Theo, obviously.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, I’m always happy to be helpful and believe in things to make Kayleigh annoyed!” Murphy said, getting a slight laugh out of Holmes. “It is good to meet you. Hopefully this means that Jamie will stop writing weird sappy lyric poetry that I then have to edit.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That only happened twice!” Jamie intervened but not before Holmes could level him with a look that left his heart thumping. On the surface it said that she wasn’t impressed but he could read the fondness in her eyes. It made him want to melt but in the best way.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And that's our cue!” Theo clapped his hands together and grinned. “We,” He said pointing at himself and the other three. “Are going over to Murphy and Dylan’s while you two get acquainted.” He wiggled his eyebrows. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ll be back for dinner!” Carly said, grabbing her sister’s hand and leading the way out of the apartment. “We have a reservation at Swiftie’s for six and we wanna get to know Charlotte better! So don’t be late!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We won’t be.” Jamie reassured her and then suddenly they were alone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They seem nice.” Holmes said, leaning against Jamie. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They’re some of my best friends.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m glad. Will you tell me about them?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Holmes smiled and the sight of it settled deep in Jamie's bones. “I know we have a lot to talk about and twenty four pages worth of conditions to rework but I just want you to know that I’m happy to see you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Man, those years away really did change you.” Jamie teased. “Also, twenty four? You added a page.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, what else did you expect?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jamie laughed, a full belly laugh and kissed her again. They stood in the living room just holding each other and kissing for a long time. Jamie knew that Holmes was right and they had to talk about it all but for now he just let himself melt into her. She was home, she was with him and the rest of the world could wait. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>follow me on tumblr @kentuckyfriedbooks</p></blockquote></div></div>
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